Five CU-Boulder Graduate Programs cited Among Nation&#39;s Best In Magazine

February 28, 1997

Five programs at the University of Colorado at Boulder were cited for excellence in a ranking of the nation's best graduate schools released this week by U.S. News and World Report.

The law and education graduate programs at CU-Boulder made significant gains in 1997. The overall CU School of Law ranking jumped from 39th to 30th, while the School of Education climbed from 25th to 19th. Also ranked in 1997 were CU-Boulder graduate programs in engineering, music and environmental law.

U.S. News did not conduct national rankings of five other graduate programs in which CU-Boulder received high marks last year. The 1997 edition of "America's Best Graduate Schools" ranked the nation's top graduate schools in 16 academic disciplines in 1997, compared to 31 in 1996.

While rankings of colleges and universities often are met with some controversy, we are proud that CU-Boulders programs are highly regarded among the graduate schools evaluated this year by U.S. News and World Report, said CU-Boulder Chancellor Richard Byyny.

These findings underscore the achievements of our faculty, staff and students in continuing to raise the quality of CU-Boulders graduate education.

In the overall 1997 law school rankings in which CU was ranked 30th, Yale University was ranked first followed by Harvard University and the University of Chicago.

In the law specialty rankings, U.S. News ranked CUs environmental law program fifth in the nation for excellence in 1997. The CU program was ranked third in 1996. Lewis and Clark College in Oregon was ranked first again in 1997, followed by the Vermont Law School and Pace University in New York.

The U.S. News rankings in education, in which CU-Boulders School of Education was ranked 19th best in the country, were led by Harvard and Columbia universities, which tied for first.

The master's program in CU-Boulders College of Music was tied for 20th in the nation with Rice University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the 1997 rankings. CU-Boulders music graduate program also was tied for 20th in 1996. Ranked first in 1997 was the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music.

The graduate program in the College of Engineering and Applied Science ranked 30th best in the nation, the same position it held last year. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford were ranked first and second respectively for the second straight year.

CU's Health Sciences Center was ranked 11th nationally for excellence by the magazine in 1996 in the training of primary care physicians, up from 13th in 1996.

This year the magazine did not rank graduate programs in atomic physics, in which CU-Boulder was ranked first in 1996. It also did not rank graduate programs in advertising (CU-Boulder ranked 13th in 1996) psychology (CU-Boulder ranked 16th in 1996) chemistry (CU-Boulder ranked 20th in 1996) or biology (CU-Boulder ranked 20th in 1996).

The criteria for the U.S. News graduate school rankings included such categories as student selectivity, faculty resources, research activity, institutional reputation and job placement success. The 1997 Americas Best Graduate Schools issue and guidebook will be on newsstands March 3.